I know I didn’t get around to wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. But I hope you all had whatever suited your particular desires and needs.
And I know I’m a couple of days late in wishing you all a Happy New Year, but I hope that 2023 will bring you whatever you want.
Looking at the celebrations around the world, I find it wonderful that so many, many people are so optimistic…
Boadicea's Chariot 
And a Happy New Year to you too Boadicea.
Having just read the first chapter of Ian McEwan’s ‘Enduring Love’, which completely knocks one’s socks off, my day is to be spent cemented to the sofa.
Happy New Year! I hope for the best. It seems a lot of things are happening — some good, some bad. One lives in hope.
Gazoopi: I’ve been reading a book about the Royal Hong Kong Police. Good stuff.
One piece of good news for early 2023. Nicola Sturgeon has resigned. Hip, hip hooray!
Sheona: the big question is was she pushed or did she jump?
Boadicea: From what I gather, she jumped before she was pushed. There were more and more scandals brewing in the background. Her attempts to distract from them — the moot promises/threats of IndyRef II and the gender bill — both doomed from the start — where a desperate attempt to keep attention elsewhere. In both cases, she merely undermined what little credibility she had left.
Christopher: I had the weidest experience yesterday evening. There was a brief announcement on the Telegraph that it was rumoured that she was resigning. Not an editorial – just a short notice.
The comments on that announcement were being put up faster than I could read them – not one was complimentary and the ‘like’ button was being pressed on those comments at such a rate it was mind-blowing.
I guess a lot of people agree with Sheona!
Boadicea: Scotland’s a complex country and the SNP have a complex voter base. Not all SNP voters actually support independence. Many support autonomy, greater autonomy, even — but not outright independence. That’s why Nicky the Fish had to parrot Salmond’s line that an independent Scotland wouldn’t be any less British than a Scotland in Union. I got a chuckle out of it when they tried to make the argument that a century of independence hasn’t diminished the Republic of Ireland’s Britishness — the Irish had something to say about that argument and it was hardly to agree! There are some Fenian-light republicans, but they also have some small-c conservative monarchists. They have traditionalist social-conservatives and they have quasi-marxian leftists. The only thing they could actually agree on is that both Labour and the Tories left much to be desired. If the SNP implode, that will make a Starmer premiership all the more likely. Then again, after the way the Tories bottled it last year, they were going to lose again, anyway — and badly. Better to have a reasonably sensible Labour government than a cabal of Mhairi Black types, anyway.
I think there’s quite a lot of investigation to be done into Scotland’s and SNP’s finances. Sturgeon’s husband has been very unwilling to let anyone have a good look at his account books.
Sheona: as I understand it there is pressure on Sturgeon’s husband to go too.
Fishy by name …. !
I read an interesting article on Sturgeon not so long ago. Her law professors at Glasgow university were not complimentary about her intellect. It appears that she was facing two charges of incompetence as a solicitor, which she escaped by going into politics. Definitely a case of jumping before she was pushed. Don’t invite her to distribute prizes, Ayr Academy, even though she was once head girl. I expect she made a mess of that too.
Hey Sheona!
Just read the news re Sturgeon’s hubby!
Husband of fish paste is in sticky waters. Fish paste had disappeared from public view. The police have scoured through their fish tank!